How many elementary and middle schools teach our children how technology work is done in the real world? Do our children know what Project Planning is? Or do they understand the difference between Requirements and System Design. If you ask a child about testing does the child understand the related concepts? This article discusses the "Technology" aspect of STEM.
STEM Overview & Goals
“The
health & longevity of our Nation’s citizenry, economy and environmental
resources depend in large part on the acceleration of scientific and
technological innovations, such as those that improve health care, inspire new
industries, protect the environment, and safeguard us from harm.”
Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) Education 5-Year Strategic Plan, “A Report from the Committee on STEM Education National Science and Technology Council”, Executive Office of the President – National Science and Technology Council , MAY 2013
“The need for high quality science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has been touted by
numerous reports that link our Nation’s future economic success and security to
a highly skilled STEM workforce.”
The Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) Education Portfolio Report
President Obama’s Goal for STEM
The U.S. will have the highest proportion of
college graduates in the world by 2020,
- The Federal Government will work with education partners to improve the quality of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education at all levels to help increase the number of well-prepared graduates with STEM degrees by one-third over the next 10 years,
- The United States institutions of higher education will increase the number of students who receive undergraduate STEM degrees by about 34 % over current rates by 2020.
Goal Leader: Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Assistant Director, Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation
Federal Government Investments
The CoSTEM released the Federal Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Portfolio report that describes
how 13 Federal agencies utilize $3.4 billion to support STEM education.
- A gap analysis of current investments shows none collectively do the following:
- Present an Educational System that teaches children 2rd grade – High School IT concepts based on the way work is completed in real life;
- Present content & provide practice sessions with lessons based on a real IT project;
- Uses a strategy to teach all U.S. children Information Technology industry best practices to increase the number of IT graduates & professionals
- Present a branch, in IT Education, that takes into consideration concept changes by IT Industry (i.e., Telecommunications, Healthcare, Automotive, Banking, etc.)
Introducing the Yson Educational System (YES)
I designed the Yson Educational System after over 20 years of IT Experience; and over 3 years of Technology Education made me realize there is a gap between the way work is done in the real work; and the way IT is taught in schools. Most of the IT graduates I've met had to take non-IT jobs right out of College. However, with Yson, students start IT education in 2nd grade; they, then end up with a complete IT portfolio (with all applicable IT project artifacts) as a college graduate. This should result in their ability to get an IT internship out of high school and a paying IT job when they finish college. Currently, IT graduates are not able to get an IT job right out of college because the college courses do not delve deep enough into what, when and how IT work is completed. This means a real world workflow (i.e., a Software Development Life-Cycle methodology) is not used to teach technology. Therefore, we are taught technology one way; while the work is performed another way.
Yson Educational System Presents technology concepts at a granular level grouped by Project Planning Activities, Requirements Definition Activities, Design Activities, Development Activities, Integration & Testing Activities, Implementation Activities, Maintenance Activities, and Disposition Activities.
This approach does the following:
- Develops basic knowledge on how to create technology products by applying the “same work processes used in the real world”
- Initiates Information Technology education at the 2nd Grade Level.
- Helps the U.S. have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.
- Ensures high school graduates are able to support any phase of the SDLC.
- Increases the # of people who know how to build technology products (to increase the # of technology products developed in the U.S.)
- Improves the U.S. economy & way of life (increasing the # of technology products means an increase in the # of software development companies, which increases the # of high-paying jobs in the U.S. )
- Uses Real World projects to teach technology concepts.
The instruction is delivered through Tutoring Sessions that include the following series of educational materials: Teacher's Guide, In-Class Lab Book, Homework Lab Book, Vocabulary Workbook and Assessment Guide (includes Review material & Test questions). Further, the content is delivered using the following:
- Learning Objectives - Presents Concepts & Content that kids should learn
- Vocabulary Words – Presents IT vocabulary words kids need to know and understand
- Tools – Presents tools used to perform the tasks associated with each SDLC Phase
- Tasks – Presents the tasks (or actions) that make up an activity.
Conclusion
Yson Educational System ensures students complete assignments using an IT Project methodology; thus they are
familiar with real world IT project artifacts and the order in which these artifacts are created; as well as how they are created. It also ensures:
- Exercises are presented using a real world IT project so the homework results in building samples for a professional portfolio.
- Schools use proper pre-requisite ordering so assignments are completed in the order in which work is done in the real world.
- IT content is presented at the appropriate level so the child learns using a building block method. For example, children learn the basics of the "what" in grades 2 and 3; then Grades 4 and up delve more and more into the how. By the time a child graduates from the 8th grade; he or she can successfully interview with an IT Recruiter. By the time the child graduates from high school he or she can perform all phases of the Life-Cycle. This means college IT courses would focus on industry specific education such as IT Banking, IT Automotive, Telecommunications, etc.
